the garden of emeralds

Orion, Alberta, Canada

Orion was founded in 1916 originally under the name ‘Needmore’. It was a boom town that flourished for a short time on its wheat and railroad industry before losing population to a drought between 1917 and 1927. Scattered wildfires cleared out the remainder of its inhabitants and it was for the most part abandoned in 1961. Many old houses and a couple businesses remain today with its current population of 2 people.